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conservative influencerng

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conservative influencer
Charlie Kirk. Dozens of

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people across the country
have lost their jobs over

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social media comments they
made in reaction. In Eau

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Claire, Republican
Congressman Derrick Van

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Orden threatened to pull
federal funding going to

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the city over comments to
council members made online

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saying they celebrated
Kirk's death. The council

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members reject that
accusation. Political

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discourse, especially
online and in social media,

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even before Kirk's
assassination, has been

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beyond toxic. But how to
agree to disagree and talk

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about it? BridgeEauClaire
is a chapter of bridge USA,

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which brings college
students of different

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persuasions together to
discuss polarizing topics.

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U.A.W. Eau Claire,
political science professor

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Adam Kuntz is the group's
faculty advisor.

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>> Thanks for having me.
>> So do you suppose that

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your next session you will
be discussing Charlie Kirk?

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>> I believe the students
actually already have.

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They've had their first
session, and they have

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discussed openly about what
their views are on the on

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the event. And I believe
the students are going to

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have an ongoing
probably throughout the

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year.
>> What kinds of other

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topics has BridgeEauClaire
engaged on?

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>> So BridgeEauClaire is
basically what I would

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describe as the anti debate
club. The goal of the club

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is basically to be a
conversation club. It's

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less about winning an
argument, it's more about

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trying to discuss and
understand one another in

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terms of our perspectives
on politics, culture,

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religious backgrounds,
etcetera. And so the topics

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can be far reaching. It can
be anything from is a hot

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dog a sandwich all the way
up to should the United

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States disassociate from
Israel. So those, those

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kinds of topics can be rife
with lots of different

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opinions. And the goal
behind any bridge meeting

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is basically to bring
people from all different

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perspectives into a room,
feel empowered to be able

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to share your opinions and
to try to understand one

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another. The goal is not to
convince. The goal is not

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to win. The goal is to
basically try to get

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students listening to one
another, understanding in a

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very sincere and genuine
way, and then going away

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and kind of processing that
for your own beliefs.

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>> So what are the ground
rules? What are the

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mechanics of these
discussions? How do you

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start.
>> Yeah, so that's been a

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learning experience. This
took off a couple years ago

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when we decided after an
event that was run by the

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center for Constitutional
Studies, which is what I'm

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affiliated with on campus,
that we wanted to found a

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club like this. This is
less about free speech,

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which is certainly a right
that every American citizen

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has. This is more about how
do I exercise my free

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speech and responsible ways,
and to allow other people

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to express those free
speech rights. And so the

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ground rules are very much,
first of all, guided by the

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national organization. It's
there's there's a whole

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handbook that the students
go through to kind of

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figure out how they would
bring up a topic. There's

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moderating time. There is a
club president, there are

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people that are in charge
for picking the topics

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themselves. But then within
the local organizations,

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there's a lot of
adaptability and Eau Claire

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students are very polite
students. They've got, you

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know, Wisconsin nice. And
so I think that they they

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add this extra layer of
kind of wanting to build a

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community despite political
to admire the Gen Z

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students because I think
they are looking for ways

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to build that kind of
social connection in a

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world that's mostly driven
by algorithms.

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have you found students to
engage in actual civil

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discussion with this
generation, possibly

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craving real connections?
>> Yeah, I think so. I've

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I've watched I've been
teaching for about ten

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years in different
capacities, and I've

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watched as the Gen Z
population has started to

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mature. And it's
interesting. We're about

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three years away from
having our first gen Alpha

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student in college, which
makes me feel so old. But

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the Gen Z students are
absolutely looking for ways

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to connect. But there's
this feeling among them

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that they don't really know
how to connect. There's

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this kind of catch 22. They
want a social situation.

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They want to find a
community, but they're so

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used to being targeted or
trolled online, they're

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scared to be able to
express their opinions. And

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so clubs like bridge are a
great way for them to learn.

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You know, those social
skills in a real way, and

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to do so in a closed
environment where they

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going to get piled on or
misunderstood, or have

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something screenshotted and
taken out of context.

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>> Circling back to Charlie
Kirk in the aftermath of

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his assassination, do you
sense a chilling effect on

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freedom of expression with
people across the country

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right now?
>> I think that there is a

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huge divide right now over
the terms of free speech. I

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think that for many
Americans, if you ask them

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on Pew Research questions,
for instance, it's it's

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over a 90% threshold that
Americans cherish the value

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of free speech. I think the
challenge that we always

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have, though, is what does
that mean when it's the

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other person expressing it?
Everybody wants free speech

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for themselves. Query as to
to allow free speech for

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others. There are, of
course, categories of

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speech that are not
protected. We know what

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those are incitement,
obscenity, etc. but for the

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most part, our First
Amendment protects us. It

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gives us the chance to be
able to express ourselves,

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and especially on
university campuses. That

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means both Republican as
well as Democratic students.

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And so I think that
universities have a real

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opportunity right now to
show that, you know, in a

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pluralist society where
people come with multiple

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beliefs, the university can
be a place where people

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express themselves and do
so in ways that are not

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going to be silencing to
them, to them. I wish that

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we could replicate that in
the rest of the public

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sphere. I wish that we
could help other Americans

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after college or in other
areas of life, recognize

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that that is really the
lifeblood of what we're

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doing in our American
doing in our American